I'd like to call this meeting of the Sophia Travis grants. It's actually a kickoff meeting. I'd like
to call it to order. I'd like to state for the record the following committee members who are present
here today in the NatU Hill Room. So I'm going to start here to my right. I'm Julie Robertson. I'm Trent
Deckard. And I'm Liz Vidal.
Do we have, I believe Jennifer Crossley's not gonna be here this evening, so we don't have anybody on
the committee attending virtually. So yeah, I'd like to take a moment to welcome everybody here and
those that are watching virtually to the 2026 Sophia Travis kickoff meeting. And I'd like to welcome
our newest committee member, Katie Hopkins. So I wanna give her an opportunity to introduce herself and
then we'll invite the other committee members to introduce themselves to the public as well. Thanks,
Julie. Yeah, my name is Katie Hopkins and fresh on this committee as of two weeks ago.
So I've had one meeting and very interested to learn more about this process and to go through it with
you all. I work here in Bloomington with M Street Fiber as a digital equity manager and volunteer in
several nonprofits. So I'm really excited to get started with this.
I guess I'll go next. My name is Julie Robertson. I am the other community committee member. Last year
was my first year serving on this committee. I really enjoyed my time here. I'm very active in the community.
I do a lot of hands-on volunteer work through several other organizations here in town. And so I'm looking
forward to this year and getting it going. My name's Trent Decker. I'm an at-large member of the Monroe
County Council. And I'm here as one of the three county council members
appointed to this this is my second year this rotation and then earlier in my service I think it was
twenty nineteen twenty twenty or so I also served on the committee some of the best service I ever do
I generally have a rule of our not for profit community contacts mean ask me I'm
I'm going to get myself in trouble here. Ask me to do something or volunteer or step in or do whatever.
I do that. And I see that as this work here on this committee and the extension of that. And it's just
awesome to get to be back. Hello, I'm Liz Fiddle. This is my second year along with Trent serving as
an at-large county council person in this role.
I am enjoying the Sophia Travis Grant Committee a lot. I have a lot of nonprofit experience, whether
it's union or community service or United Way or a bunch of things, including Rotary. I've been a longtime
Rotarian. So community service is a big part of who I am. And I'm happy and happy that others are applying
for these monies that we have to distribute. So I look forward to seeing a lot of you be granted those funds.
Thank you for those committee members who were speaking to today. Without further delay, I'd like to
turn the meeting over to Lihua Aplaca to tell us about the process. Hello and welcome. As council committee
member Robertson said, I'm Lihua Aplaca. I am the assistant council administrator. I started in this
role last July and actually my first week last year was the same week as
Sophia Travis kickoff, so it was a baptism by fire. I have learned a lot in this last year in preparation
for this coming year. I do have somewhat of a background in nonprofit. I worked from 2012 to 2017 for
Area 10 Agency on Aging. Started out as a real transit driver, driving a little round bus around Owen
and Monroe counties.
Then was their food pantry director, so went shopping at Hoosier Hills Food Bank every week to get groceries
to prepare deliveries for approximately 300 home-bound seniors in Monroe and Owen counties, and then
became their nutrition program manager, handling their hot meal delivery program as well as their hot
meal site program that they have for seniors. So as I said, I'm a little familiar with some of the concerns
that happen, especially with food insecurity in Monroe County for some of our more vulnerable
groups in our community. So when you reach out to me to talk to me, just know that I'm familiar with
some of the things that you guys are experiencing. But let's go ahead and talk about this year's Sophia Travis.
for technical difficulties. Perfect. Okay, so as some of you may have learned last year, due to the
county IT security protocols, we are no longer able to send mass emails out to the
groups that we've worked with previously, as it triggers our spam filters. So the best way to stay up
to date with Sophia Travis is through our Facebook page and our county website page. As you can see
on the screen, we've shared those addresses and links. But unfortunately, last year, the week after
we shared the Sophia Travis webpage address,
our webpage address changed. And so this year, just to demonstrate how you'll be able to find that page,
Kim is going to navigate the site so that you'll be able to see how to search for us on the county website. OK.
if you can click on a link or whatever, it will take you and you will see this in the, that not popping up now.
This is what our new website looks like. You'll see indiana.gov at the top and you'll see Monroe County.
In order to find our Sophia Travis portion, you'll want to scroll on the left side of the website and
you'll see Boards, Commissions and Committees. You can go here and scroll down through and find Sophia Travis.
committee service grants, and that's where our website is. And so here is where we will post
the applications, the guidelines, upcoming information for everyone. So you'll just come to this website
and you'll get all the links that you will need in order to apply. Also, you'll be able to find, here's
the committee members along
you know, if you have an email or you want to reach out, we encourage that you send an email to the
County Council's office and then we can distribute it to the entire committee for you. So, also here
you can click award distributions history, the 2024 recipients,
That kind of thing. I think up here is 2025 recipients from last year. So we try to keep this pretty
up to date. That way you can go through and see any history that you might need. Or again, you can just
reach out to the office. Is the office number on there somewhere for them?
It doesn't appear that way, because it's a committee. I'm not in charge of this website, so I don't
know. Where? On the flyer. Oh, it is on the flyer, though, that we do have. Hang on just a second. Is
the flyer on that link? Yeah, the flyer is right here. Oh, and it's on there. Yeah, it's on there. So
it's right here in this section. There is a phone number right here, and as well as the email address.
Thanks, Kim. Okay, so let's go over this year's application requirements. Next slide. Now, one of the
first things you'll notice when you receive this year's packet is that there is a checklist now on the
first page with important information and requirements and reminders for this year's application.
Then when you continue on to the application itself, one of the things you'll see at the top of the
application is the 501C3 ID number. So applicants to qualify for Sophia Travis grants must be a 501C3
organization. If for some reason you don't have your number or you forgot your number, you are able
to get that number from the IRS Tax Exempt Organization search website
There is the address there is what the website page looks like when you pull it up you have they have
drop-down search options that allow you to search either for your organization name or your EIN and
The guidelines that will be available on the Sophia Travis webpage will have an active link in the document
the guidelines document that you can click on it will also direct you to this IRS search page as well and
Please be sure to have the federal 501C3 ID number filled out prior to submitting your application.
This is one of the ways we are going to be checking if you qualify for the grant. Additionally, we also
need a current calendar year W9 form included in your application submission.
This document is needed by our auditor's office because the address that you have on the W-9 is what
they will be using for all mailing purposes. We want to ensure that it is also signed by the appropriate
person in your organization. If you look at the screen, you'll see there's a little red X and that's
where the signature would go.
And as a reminder, once again, it does need to be for 2026. 501c3 organizations are required to file
one every year, but for our purposes, we can't use 2025 or 2024. It has to be the current year's W9.
Is that on the application itself, the place to put that? No, it would be a form that
a copy of the form that they would have to attach to the application. But on the application, it doesn't
ask for the W9, right? It does. It does. Oh, it does. OK. And then if, again, this website too, if an
organization is having trouble locating the W9 site, although a simple Google search will take you there,
on the guidelines that we have listed on the website, there is also an active link to direct you to
the W9 IRS site as well.
As you go through the application and continue on, we will also ask for a distinct primary and secondary
contact. This must be two different people and who are knowledgeable about the application project.
It would also be helpful to ensure that each contact has a distinct way to be reached, either an additional
phone number or email address. We must be able to reach someone if there's an issue with your application,
occasionally
our communication will be time sensitive, and so we need to be able to get a hold of someone. I realize
that sometimes there's like a master phone number or a master email address for the agency or organization,
but we also need to be sure that there is an additional way to get a hold of someone. So please be sure
that there is distinct ways, one or two ways of getting a hold of someone from your organization who
can answer any questions we might have.
And then continuing on through the application, we come to the project information. Please remember
to fill out the title of the project. This title will be included in the contract in the agreement.
That is how we'll refer to what you are doing with the Sophia Travis funds that you receive. Additionally,
in this section, you can also fill out what your request is for the grant amount, how much the total
project cost will be,
how many clients you anticipate will be directly impacted by this project, and how many of those impacted
are Monroe County residents. And then continuing on through the application, we come to the other funding
sources. At this point, you will share the other funding you are seeking. The name of the funding source
and the dropdown menu allows you to select
whether that funding is pending or confirmed. And so you'll include the totals you're requesting from
those other groups as well as the name of the groups that you are reaching out to. For the itemized
budget, in this section you would share an itemized and prioritized project elements list for which
funding is requested. Number one is the highest priority and 10 is the lowest, all 10 lines
need not be filled. If you don't have 10 items you're requesting grant funding for, you don't need to
fill in all the lines. But we would like to see what is most prioritized for you up at the top of the
list. Another requirement of the application is your most current year end or comparable end of fiscal
year financial statement. This is an example here of what we need to see
You need to be sure it includes your agency's fund revenue and expenditure totals. And as I said, this
is a required part of the application. It does not need to be in this specific format. Just so long
as it's clear, all of the information can be clearly read and understood.
Then another requirement is the grant project proposal narrative. It's a thousand word maximum, and
this is where you would detail the project for which you are requesting funding. This is your opportunity
to go into greater depth about your project, your vision, your goal, and how the funding will help you
achieve it. And now that we've reviewed the application, let's go over the criteria for evaluating the
application.
So first, completion of all required reports from the previous Sophia Travis grant cycles, this would
be for 2024 and prior because we do acknowledge that those who received 2025 Sophia Travis funds have
until December 31st, 2025 to spend them. But if you received Sophia Travis funds in 2024, your spending
report is due on March 31st, so in two weeks basically,
of this year. And so the spending report is required to continue to be eligible to apply for Sophia
Travis grant funds. Additionally, the projects must primarily serve Monroe County residents.
the extents to which the dollar amount sought will accomplish the stated goals of the project, and the
extent to which the funds sought will leverage additional funds or assistance. These are all the things
that the committee members are going to be looking at when they consider your application for Sophia
Travis funding. The areas for support, we have eight included in Sophia Travis. That starts with health, food,
nutrition, security, and shelter, transportation assistance, climate change, emergency shortages, first
responders, veterans assistance, excellence in government, and youth enrichment opportunities. And Sophia
Travis being a dynamic program, we learn lessons every year.
and refine it moving forward. As such, here are a few clarifications for the future. First, using Sophia
Travis Community Services grant funds to create subgrants is prohibited. Next, the state of Indiana
does not permit Sophia Travis grant funding to be used to subsidize a county department. Therefore,
a collaborative grant application with a county department partner is not allowed. And third, if a Sophia
Travis is so,
big pardon, if a Sophia Travis Community Services Grant awardee does not sign the award agreement by
Friday, October 30th of this year, 2026, they forfeit their award. And now we come to collaborative
applications.
In more recent years, with hopes of better leveraging Sophia Travis grant funds, the committee has added
the opportunity for collaborative grants among local nonprofits. The committee encourages agencies to
continue working together toward common goals. Please refer to the collaborative guidelines in your
handout for more information. If you have any further questions, please contact the council office.
We'll have that contact information for you again later. A collaborative application includes two or
more agencies.
You would use the same application form, but there will be a few differences in your submission with
the collaborative. You must first have a memorandum of understanding detailing all the parties and their
duties. The MLU must accompany the application at time of submission to be eligible for consideration,
and an agency is able to apply as a single agency as well as have a collaborative grant application.
the scoring procedures are the same. And then we would like to again reiterate that the state of Indiana
does not permit Sophia Travis grant funding to be used to subsidize a county department and therefore
collaborative grant application with a county department partner is not allowed. Additionally,
We come to public presentations. Applicants are requested but not required to give a brief three minute
or less presentation on their request. During the presentation, a cover slide will be displayed with
the agency's basic information. If you can go to the next slide. This is what that cover slide looks
like. We have this template available at the council office. If you'd like a copy of that, we can send
it to you. Just reach out to the council office and we'll get that to you.
Otherwise, you could develop a cover slide of your own. We just need to be sure that includes a brief
mission statement about one to three lines, the address, street, city, state, and zip, the agency's
phone number, agency website, and our Facebook address, if applicable, and the leadership team names.
As I said, this is not a requirement, but it is highly encouraged because it gives you a chance to share
your agency's services and is what
and expand on your project as well. Unfortunately, we are not able to accommodate a prerecorded or virtual
presentation. All presentations must be done in person. And then lastly, and again, we've mentioned
this a few times, we have our grant spending report. This is a crucial component of the grant process.
The report must contain a summary of your project and how it went
and all invoices and receipts that Sophia Travis Awards funded. There is not a specific form or format
for the spending report, but this is information that is required per your agreement. As a reminder,
your 2024 grant award summary report is due at the end of the month, March 31st of this year. To ensure
your eligibility to apply for the 2026 grant award, please get your report, invoices, receipts, council
checks, email to the council office as soon as possible.
As a reminder, the 2025 grant spending report is due no later than March 31st, 2027, and due to the
fact that we've shifted this year's grant application period forward, the 2026 award report will be
due no later than December 31st of 2027.
So if you receive funding in 2025 and 2026 from Sophia Travis, you'll have two reports due in 2027,
one in March and one December 31st. And all of this will be, yeah. And all these dates and this information
will be available on our website. We'll also probably hit the highlights on Facebook as well. And then,
Additionally, this year, we've been reaching out to the nonprofit alliance to include information in
their newsletter. So that will all be avenues in which you can gain information about these deadlines
and tweaks that we've added to this year's process. Not lastly. So contact us if you have any questions
after this evening or once you start
getting into the application itself, please feel free to reach out to us by email or by phone. Facebook
we use mostly for notices. We haven't really been communicating back and forth on Facebook. So email
and phone is probably best if you need a response. But if you're looking for notices and just general
information, that will be available on the Facebook and website. So lastly, then, are important dates
and deadlines coming up.
Again, tomorrow, the application period will begin, so Thursday, March 12th. April 27th, the application
period will end. May 13th, we'll have the applicants present, that's the presentation night we talked
about. June 9th is when the committee would make their award recommendation to the county council. June
10th is when we would like to host those
agencies and organizations that receive an award to come sign their agreements. The sooner we can get
those agreement signed and submitted, the sooner we can get people their checks. And with that goal
in mind, we anticipate being able to have checks ready for the agencies July 16th, pick up in the auditor's
office after 1 p.m. And so we would like to turn the time back to
committee member Robertson for any questions in there in this next little while. Thank you. Nice job
presenting all that information. Appreciate it very much. So now we've come to the point where we'd
like to invite anyone that has any questions to please come up to the podium here in the NatU Hill room,
or you can raise your hand on teams and we will try to do our best to get to everybody in order.
we might have somebody on teams. James, are you able to unmute yourself
Okay, I think I unmuted myself. Yes. So, do you need any audited financial statements or is other unaudited
statements sufficient for those requirements?
We've never had that question before. They're asking if are we requiring audited financial statements? Yeah.
We will just have to review that, that we've never made that a requirement that they be audited. I think
what we've always requested with regards to what needs to be submitted with the application is,
you know, if you spend $500, we need to see a spending report or a check that matches that $500 or a
receipt that shows that that. So maybe that might answer your question.
but we will get back with you. You have the name and contact information. In our case, the audited statements
are usually a little bit older than our most current financial statements. Sometimes there's a timeline
between what gets the audited versions and the most recent fiscal year. That's what I was asking. I
think that you answered the question. Okay, thank you.
Do we have anybody else here in the audience or on teams that would like to ask a question of the council
or the committee? Can you come up, right? Please open the podium, please, yes.
Thank you. I have two questions. One for the collaborative applications. Do both agencies need to be
501C3? No. You need to designate whoever is going to be the fiscal body for that agency needs to be
a 501C. Great. And then are all applicants
Do all applicants do the presentations, or is there a selection process prior to that? We send out a
date saying, you know, we have the date. So everybody that turns in an application, then we send you
the order in which to present. So if you show up, you present. If you don't show up, we move on to the
next person that's in line. Thank you.
Can you tell us your name, please, so we know who you are? Yes, I'm Sarah Farmer. Thank you. Do we have
anyone else in the audience or anyone else via Teams to ask a question? Okay, seeing none, then I would
that we are done here today. Thank you all for coming. Thank you all for viewing today, and hopefully
we have lots of applicants this year. We had quite a few last year, so I'm excited to see who we get
this year. The applications will be posted on the website tomorrow afternoon. So.
If they're not there, just give us a chance because we've got to work through with TSD to get all the
links working and that kind of thing. So, you know, we'll do our best to have everything ready tomorrow
afternoon. But you can always give us a call, like we said. All right. Well, thank you very much. Meetings
adjourned.